


Shade

by Epzilon



Category: Original Work, Shade - Fandom
Genre: Demons, Dreams and Nightmares, Dreamsharing, Gen, Nightmares, Original Character(s), Prophetic Dreams, Science Fiction, Science Fiction & Fantasy, Superpowers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-02
Updated: 2021-02-10
Packaged: 2021-03-07 22:48:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 16,739
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26775406
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Epzilon/pseuds/Epzilon
Summary: Aaron Aikos was doing a routine prison inspection. Just a normal day for the ANGEL agent, nothing new, until a powerful prisoner makes his break. Now, Aaron must track down Zack, making new friends and enemies along the way. Can he recapture Zack before the damage is done?
Comments: 5
Kudos: 3





	1. Inspection Day

“Welcome to Prism Maximum Security, Agent Aikos,” The guard in front of me handed back my badge and opened the door. He seemed a bit too green to be working at such a dangerous job, but then again, he was just the gatekeeper.

“Thank you, but you can just call me Aaron,” I didn’t feel as if I had earned the title yet, despite being through the same as any other agent. Three years in the academy, one year of apprenticeship under a senior agent, and passing countless tests, both written and physical. I shuddered, thinking back to my running exam. I was out of commission for a week afterward. “And thank you for allowing this surprise inspection.”

“No problem Agent- er… Aaron. Regular safety inspections are important for a facility like this. Can’t have any cracks in the walls,” the guard chuckled. Laughing politely and nodding, I moved past the gate into the main compound, leaving the post behind. Another guard, this one looking slightly more confident in his abilities than the first, followed alongside me. The new guard’s eyes were yellow.  _ Hm,  _ I thought to myself, _ He must have some kind of Token. _

The compound was like most prisons I had been assigned to inspect. A few grey brick buildings, a large courtyard, and, of course, a large, metal and concrete wall a meter thick surrounded the complex. The prison was known to hold some more infamous criminals, yes, but there were some “amenities” for less… raucous inmates, a library, a greenhouse, and even a pool among them.

I went around the prison, checking to make sure that everything was up to code. The second guard followed me, answering any questions I had. “How do you ensure that any inmate with a Token can’t escape? The pool and greenhouse especially seem risky considering how relatively common elemental Tokens are.”

“We have Blockers on any inmate with a Token, and we also try to hire guards with Tokens that counter those of our inmates,” 

I made a note on my clipboard. Blockers were usually expensive, stopping all but the most powerful Tokens from being used. There were some murmurs amongst my co-workers about how our boss fought a suspect who overpowered his Blocker, but their story of how she did it changed each time.  _ I should ask her about that next time I get the chance, _ I thought. “Any escape attempts since the previous inspection?”

“No, sir. There was some contraband discovered, and we thought they had found a way to make contact with the outside world, but it turns out they were just sneaking into the break room.” After making some final notes on my clipboard and checking over what I had written, I looked back up to the guard.

“Okay, that’s most of the infrastructure and general prison things done. Now I just need to check some of the maximum-security prisoners and I’ll be on my way,” I turned through my papers to find my list of special-interest prisoners. “Let’s start with… Zack Oscoinne.”

The guard looked slightly nervous for a moment, but only for just a moment. “Are you sure?” he asked. “You don’t want to start with any other prisoner?” 

“I’m just going by my list. Oscoinne is at the top,” I responded. The guard sighed, checked his watch, then motioned for me to follow him. We walked into a small shed near the corner of the compound. It was an unassuming grey, like the rest of the buildings. The guard swiped his badge against a scanner on the door, and it swung open.

It was filled with an assortment of tools. A few lockers lined the wall, presumably with spare weapons for the guards based on the locks. A table sat in the center of the room, dinky chairs surrounding it, and a few loose cards on top. A couple of screens hung from the walls showing blurry images of various locations around the prison.

“We both need to scan our badges,” the guard said. He was standing under the screens at what looked like a control panel. I reached above my head and grabbed my halo, a piece of standard ANGEL equipment. I’d made some modifications to mine so that it was more than just identification, as most agents did, but every halo identified its agent nonetheless.

As I pressed my halo to the scanner, I heard a hiss next to me. A staircase leading downwards into darkness opened from the floor. The guard stepped down a few steps, grabbed something off the wall, and handed it to me. “Here,” he said, handing me what looked like a pair of sunglasses. “Trust me, you’ll need them,” _ Why would I need sunglasses for such a dark tunnel? _ I thought to myself, chuckling worriedly in my head. I put the shades on anyway and followed the guard into the darkness.


	2. The Light at the End of the Tunnel

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Aaron meets Zack Oscoinne.

The guard led me down, down into the dark stairwell. At some point, the steps ended and we began walking down a hall, slowly maneuvering our way through twists and turns blindly. At some point, long after the glow from behind us had completely disappeared, a new glow shined faintly in front of us.

It still took some time to get to the source of this blinding light. The labyrinth beneath Prism was seemingly endless. “Are all the maximum-security prisoners located somewhere down here?” I asked.

“No,” the guard shook his head. “No, this one is… special. That’s why I was hesitant to have you start with him. Oscoinne is under very heavy lock-and-key.” He continued weaving his way through the maze.

Curious, I looked up and asked, “How many guards have access to him?”

“Only the warden, his inner circle, and myself.”

“Why you and not any other guards of your rank?” He stopped and turned back to me, pulling his sunglasses off for a moment. His dark face was hidden by the shadows, the light was still ahead of me, but his yellow eyes glowed clear as the sun.

“I’ve got a Token. Means something along the lines of ‘energy’. They hired me specifically to guard Oscoinne as soon as they saw what I could do,” He tugged his collar down, revealing a symbol glowing the same yellow as his eyes just beneath his collar-bone. 

I racked my brain trying to remember if I had seen the symbol for this Token. It seemed familiar, but then again, Tokens often looked similar due to their origin.

Millennia ago, when humans were just learning to harness the innate magic of our world for their own, a few managed to bind themselves with magic. They managed to intertwine their own soul to a symbol imbued with magic. This magic was passed on genetically, and evolved from generation to generation, eventually becoming Tokens. 

Each Token has a symbol that came from a word in the ancient language of those first Tokened. As an ANGEL agent, we are supposed to be able to decipher any Token we encounter at a glance so we can plan strategies accordingly, but I didn’t score the best on the Token exam in the academy.

The guard had turned back around without further explanation of his Token, continuing the trek through the tunnels beneath the prison to the mysterious light.

We soon reached a large door. Light shined through the edges, blinding if not for the glasses. After scanning his badge once more, the guard swung the door open.

In the center of the room was a young man. He was floating above the ground in a black straightjacket with a metal collar around his neck, a Blocker. His short, slightly spiky hair was a dandelion yellow with black roots shining through. He didn’t look particularly tall, 5’9” if I had to guess, and his face looked rather young. His eyes were a milky white, further hinting at him having a Token.

I didn’t notice any of these things about him, however. The first thing I noticed was how his mildly pale skin glowed. The light source we had been following down the tunnel for the last few minutes had been entirely coming from him. In fact, looking around the room, I couldn’t find any other light source.  _ He overpowered his Blocker,  _ I thought.  _ Not by much, but he did overpower it. _

Seeing us, he cracked a toothy grin, revealing what looked like fangs. “Visitors? How fun!” His voice was full of… something. I couldn’t tell what, but I knew it was bad. I suddenly had an overwhelming urge to leave as soon as possible. “I wasn’t expecting anyone for at least another half hour.”

The guard smirked, “Surprise inspection. This is Agent Aikos of ANGEL.”

“ANGEL? What is that, some kind of spa?”

Struggling to remain stoic, I responded, “Actually, Mr. Oscoinne, it stands for ANomaly Government Encapturement League.”

“Please, Mr. Oscoinne was my brother. Call me Zack,” He said. Then, as an afterthought, “Or Z.”

“Okay, Zack, let’s start with an easy question. Why are you here?”

Once more he grinned. “I stole a few things, broke a few things, you know how it goes.”

“Mass murder. He snuck into the Dirillan-Salisean Embassy during peace talks and leveled the building,” The guard behind me spoke up.

My eyes widened, Dirill hadn’t existed for at least three centuries. It had been destroyed by Salisea in a massive war. I was relieved that I had the sunglasses on; I couldn’t let him see any cracks.

Zack’s grin grew wider as if he had seen my reaction anyway, “Like I said, I stole a few lives, broke a few buildings.” Then he laughed. It was a childish, chaotic laugh as if he thought he was the funniest thing in the world.

I cleared my throat and tried to regain my composure, looking to my next question. “I see you have a Blocker on. What is your Token?”

“I don’t know the specifics.  _ He  _ was always the one who knew all that useless information.” I turned to the guard, hoping he would have an answer.

“On his back,” he said, not looking up from his watch. “As far as we can figure, it means ‘light’.” I circled around behind the prisoner and pulled his collar down slightly. Sure enough, just below where his neck connected to his upper back, there was a Token glowing a brighter white than the rest of his body.

“Careful,” Zack taunted. “Any further and I’ll sue.” I walked back in front of him, checking my questions. One left.

“What is your daily schedule like?”

“Well, I wake up every morning at precisely 7 AM. Then someone comes in and-” He was interrupted by a small beeping coming from behind me. “Oops,” he said with a wink. “Time’s up!”

And then everything went white.


	3. Chaos

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Aaron deals with the aftermath of the blast and figures out how to move forward.

I woke up, pain shooting through my back. When I opened my eyes, I saw chunks of concrete and rocks. The only thing between them and a to-be-squished me was my HALO. I had managed to pull it out before being crushed. 

It was in its shield form, one of the modifications I had made to it. A sharp, golden rim encircled a clear center. The center was made out of a mesh of crystals I had found on a mission, when woven together, they created a bullet-proof shield that gave off a faint light.

_ Light _

Suddenly, everything came rushing back to me. I knocked on the back of my HALO, a burst of energy throwing the debris off of me, revealing a massive hole in the ceiling. It was dusk, the sky a bloody red, and I could hear shouts coming from above. Standing up slowly, I took stock of my injuries. My back was bruised from the impact against the wall, but the bigger issue was my ankle. It had been crushed under some rubble and was now twisted.

_ No problem,  _ I thought, flicking a switch on my HALO. The shield’s center retracted as the ring folded in two.  _ Hopefully, the wings still work.  _ I attached the wings to my back, clicking them into place. I flew upwards hesitantly. They couldn’t last long in this mode, so I’d have to be fast.

_ Based on the yelling, there’s a riot. I’m defenseless like this, so I need to get out quickly and hope the guards can handle the situation.  _ I braced myself for the escape and soared upwards. I didn’t stop, didn’t look until I was sure I was far enough above the chaos.  _ Then again, I should help whoever I can. _

I gazed down upon the pandemonium. People were fighting and screaming, walls were destroyed, and there was what looked like a large area that had been completely obliterated, piles of ash atop the blackened ground. Something seemed wrong, though. There weren’t as many people as I expected. And why were they all wearing the same uniform? Shouldn’t there be guards out here, scrambling to get the prisoners back in their cells? And then I realized.

There were no prisoners left in the complex. The guards were tearing each other apart.

I scanned the ground, looking for what I could do. I saw two guards brutally slashing each other with knives, another hiding under some rubble. I saw one running away from another towards the pool. Panicking, I began rocketing down to save him.

I drew my limbs together, maneuvered myself into a straight line, and dive-bombed towards the guard. Suddenly, a few yards from the ground, everything in my vision changed.

The ground was alive as if millions of snakes were crawling on top of each other. The pool water had turned to blood, and the walls were opening up, ready to swallow me. I squeezed my eyes shut, and grabbed the guard who had been chased, soaring back up.  _ What was that!? _

The guard began to struggle in my grasp, screaming his head off. I opened my eyes, but I didn’t see a guard in my arms, only a rotting corpse. Frightened, I dropped him, just in time for the illusions to wear off and for me to see the fear in the guard’s eyes as he plummeted down to the ground.

I was paralyzed and sick, hovering in the air as I watched him splash into the pool. Was he dead? I steeled myself; I couldn’t help anyone with these illusions messing with our minds. Tears filling my eyes, I flew as fast as I could away from the prison and left the riot behind.

Thoughts began racing through my head, but I managed to catch one and hold it tight.  _ I need to find Zack,  _ I promised myself.  _ I can’t let him escape. _

* * * * *

A rural countryside rushed by the window, obscured slightly by the glare of the rising sun. Tall trees dressed in warm-hued leaves littered the plains, slowly becoming more densely packed as the train approached my destination. My car was empty except for myself and an elderly couple. Most other passengers had gotten off many stops ago, rarely did anyone venture so far into the country.

It had been two and a half months, nearly 78 days, since the prison break. Any ANGEL agents who weren’t already busy had been looking for the escapees. We had only found a handful so far, mostly the ones with Tokens who we were most worried about. They were found within only a few miles of the prison and apprehended in a couple of hours. The majority of the prisoners, however, had disappeared.

We tried to question those we had caught. They all told the same story, that a young man had offered to lead them. They all declined and escaped without the help of the man.

Since the prison break, I had been assigned to the capture team. I wasn’t expected to be back to HQ until I had found the escaped convicts. This was fine, though, I wasn’t planning to return until I had found them.  _ Him.  _ I threw myself into the search for Z.

I started with what I knew. Somehow, someway, Zack Oscoinne had been involved with the Dirillian-Salisean War centuries ago. I searched through old records of the catalyst for the war, a bombing at an embassy.

According to old news stories, a massive flash of light enveloped the building and began growing outwards at an insane pace. Then, suddenly several claws of shadow encircled the blast, stopping it from destroying any more. Zack was found tied up at the epicenter, wearing a Salisean soldier’s uniform and laughing hysterically. He confessed to the whole thing.

I continued to look back to see if there were any records of him before the attack. Sure enough, there was. Zack Oscoinne, parentage unknown, was a member of a Dirillian agency formed to stop criminals with Tokens.  _ Sounds similar to ANGEL, _ I had thought. After the attack at the embassy, he was found to be a part of a terrorist group looking to create chaos in the world.

Witnesses of his missions from when he was with the Dirillian agency often reported being blinded by a sudden shadow enveloping their faces. After regaining their sight, they found they were blocked from where they were by walls of vines, but still managed to catch blasts of light shooting into the sky.

I stared at the article for a while before I realized:  _ There’s another mention of the Shadow. I thought his token was light.  _ Suddenly it hit me. It must be another member of the team.  _ Perhaps he might flee to the Shadow. If I can find them, I can find Z. _

Continuing my research, I looked for any mention of the Shadow. I found local legends of petty thieves in cities being suddenly blinded and disappearing and criminals who had worked in dark alleys to mug any passerby unexplainably being terrified of darkness. There were even reports of Token users that had gone crazed with power being taken out in an instant by an unseen shade.

These stories and legends continued, the Shadow showing up throughout the last three hundred years. What I couldn’t understand was why it was always portrayed as a vigilante. I had assumed that it had been aligned with Zack’s chaos group based on its involvement at the embassy attack. Still, the Shadow was my only lead. I had to follow it.

Reading through the legends, I noticed that the sightings slowly moved farther from the big cities over time, and they were also less frequent. Then, there was a sudden spike of sightings in a forest near the edge of the country, all centered around a small town called Caefild.

That’s where I was headed, Caefild. I was on my way to find this Shadow, and hopefully, I would also find Z.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! Happy Halloween, and sorry for not updating recently! This chapter has been done for about a week, but I didn't want to upload it until I had chapter four ready. Speaking of which, chapter four should release some point this weekend! 
> 
> I just want to thank my beta-readers, Cyber, Ic, and Jade. Without them, I wouldn't be as willing to post this story to the public. Jade has her own account (https://archiveofourown.org/users/catdragon13873/pseuds/catdragon13873) so go follow her and read her stuff! Thank you for reading, and thank you for waiting patiently for chapters!


	4. Blacksmith, Black Cat, Blackout

My train arrived well into the afternoon, the dying light of the golden sky making its last stand against the night as the shadows of the trees rose up to fight it off. I set myself to finding the local inn, strolling down the cobblestone road that winded through the center of the small town.

I passed by houses (each cozier looking than the last) and shops. Locals came outside to light lanterns in the front of their houses, many stopping to wave at me kindly or to talk with their neighbors. I smiled and waved back.

The Vesper Inn was in what seemed to be the town plaza: several large buildings constructed in a circle, a small well, and a large stage in front of what looked to be the town hall. The Inn was situated between the two largest buildings. The town hall was on its left, and another building (which seemed to be in the middle of renovations) was on its right. A sign labeled it as the local haberdashery, coats and hats of varying luxuriousness sat in the display windows.

I checked into my room at the front desk of the inn. The innkeeper, like everyone else in this town, seemed kind. I requested a room on the third floor, the highest one, in the hopes that I could see any suspicious persons from my window. 

Although, the longer I was in this town, the less likely it was to me that a terrorist could be hiding here. Sure, it was secluded. No one would look for you here, but it didn’t seem like the locals would harbor a criminal.

“Worry about that tomorrow,” I said aloud to myself. “Just relax for tonight.” I got ready for bed, taking one last glance out of the window. 

The street was pitch black, the lanterns not illuminating an inch of space besides the buildings they were extended from. Then, I saw a small flash of light come from the road. A red dot. I stared at it for a while before it disappeared for a moment. Then it came back as if it had blinked.

Shaking my head, I lay down to rest for the night. “Worry about that tomorrow…”

* * * * *

_ I was in a grassy meadow, flowers filling every open space on the ground. The sky was dark, covered in clouds, but I could see the world as if it were fully lit.  _

_ A purple cat jumped into the field from the forest that encircled it, chasing a golden bird. The bird circled the cat, chirping jovially.  _ Ha, ha, ha. Hee, hee, hee. _ It was laughing at the cat. The cat grew angry and got ready to pounce. _

_ Suddenly, I was in the air, hovering. I stared down at the cat’s single eye just before it lunged at me. I flew away, flapping my tiny wings as fast as possible. They soon grew tired, and I felt my arms return to me as I began to plummet. _

_ I fell for what seemed like hours. At some point, the dark sky became red, flames surrounding my descent. I landed on a slab of metal, face to the ground. I would have laid there forever, but the metal began heating up until it was unbearable. I turned over just in time to see a large hammer coming down onto my face. _

* * * * *

I shot up from my bed, drenched in sweat. Where was I? Sunlight streamed through the window into my room, it was about noon. The inn, that’s right. Why was I here again?

To find Zack.

I got dressed, throwing on jeans and my favorite hoodie, a white sweatshirt covered in golden loops and swirls. I picked my HALO off the nightstand where I’d left it. It began hovering above my head as soon as I brought it close. Finally, I opened my door, walked downstairs, grabbed a cinnamon-raisin muffin from the complimentary breakfast buffet, and headed out into the town.

_ Let’s start by asking around,  _ I thought.  _ Surely someone here would know about a Shadow.  _ I looked around, examining the town from the entrance to The Vesper. Looking right, I saw the Town Hall.  _ As good a place as any, I guess. _

I walked over and quietly opened the door. The inside of the building was large and rustic. A staircase at the back split the room in two before splitting itself to lead to two separate balconies. Hardwood floors were covered in carpets that lead to various doors. The front desk was in between me and the staircase, but no one was there.

I looked around for a bit, not knowing what to do with myself. After a few minutes, I heard cackling from above, interrupting me while deciding whether or not to find somewhere to sit. “Well, hello there, sonny boy? What can I do ya for?”

Upon the balcony was an old man, hobbling towards the stairs. As he grew closer, I got a better look at him. He was built like a warped telephone pole, skinny, tall, and hunched over. He had a cane topped with an eye, his greyed skin struggling to hold it. The man was dressed in a three-piece suit, each a different material and a different shade of brown. His beard was tucked behind his vest, and his head was topped by a patchwork top hat.

He reached the ground floor (after several minutes) and fumbled with his pockets for a moment before pulling a copper monocle speckled with green verdigris. “I’m looking for the mayor, sir. I’m a… journalist. I had some questions about this town.”

The old man’s eyes widened, tripling the wrinkles upon his forehead. “A journalist, you say?” his old voice creaked. “No one’s cared about our small town for decades! Well, I’m the mayor! Mayor Tiddlywink at your service!”

I held back a snort. “Tiddlywink…? Is that a… family name?”

“Nope! It’s just what everyone ‘round these parts calls me!”

“Oh. What is your real name, then?”

“No clue! No one thought to tell me!” I stared at him, examining his face to figure out if he was serious. His expression was inscrutable.

“Ah. Anyway, I’m writing an article about local legends, and I’ve heard quite a bit about a… Shadow… lurking around this area. Any information you’ve got for me?”

The man seemed to think for a moment, his forehead gaining yet more wrinkles from his pensive expression. “A Shadow, eh? Well, there is the Ganymede Gang. They stick together like they’re each others’ shadows,” He paused. “Wait, no.  _ Stuck _ together. They all died in a stargazing accident ‘bout 20 years back. Terrible. Horrible.”

“Anything else?” I pleaded.

He thought once more, before shrugging. “Sorry! Got nothing! This vault o’ mine is as cracked as can be!” He cackled. “Try asking some of the shop keepers! Maybe one of them‘ll have watcha lookin’ for!” And before I could say anything else, he was already hobbling back up the steps.

* * * * *

The rest of my afternoon went similarly. Locals would go off on tangents- “My niece makes the most wonderful eye-shadow! You’d like her!” “That’s what everyone calls the local stray.” “I have one of those!”-before saying they didn’t have much in the way of legends. That is, until:

“A Shadow? I’ve never heard of that! What’s a shadow?!” the blacksmith stammered. 

He looked to be about my age, maybe a few years younger. He was the youngest person I’d seen in this town since I’d arrived. He was rather buff, muscles clearly defined in his tan skin, probably acquired from working all day. His hair, two tones of brown, was shaved on one side of his cutely round head.

He wore a simple black tank-top and pants, and he had a red jacket lined with fur tied around his waist. Leather combat boots and thick gloves adorned his feet and hands, and he wore black shades over his eyes. His ears were pierced in at least 3 places each, metal sticking out everywhere. His skin was slick with sweat, although I couldn’t tell if it was from his work or his nervousness about my question.

“You… don’t know what a shadow is?”

“Nope! Never heard of it! What is that? Some kind of dog?” He was grinning, but his jaw was clenched tighter than a bear trap. “I’m more of a cat person anyway, see?” He jerked a thumb behind and above him. A black cat rested on the windowsill inside his home, watching me with its one red eye.

“Uh-huh... You sure?” I asked. Surely he knew this wasn’t working, right?

“Yep!” Guess not. “So if that’s all you needed of me, I’ve gotta get back to work! Off you go! Bye-bye!” He went back to working on what looked like a battleaxe. I turned around, ready to leave him alone.

“Mrow.” The black cat was suddenly behind me, still staring. I stepped over it gingerly, then walked off. I didn’t plan to give up, of course. This smith was clearly hiding something.

After I was sure I was out of his vision, I began walking into the forest, looking for a tree to climb. I found one that seemed sturdy enough and dropped my bag at its base. 

“Mrow.” The cat was sitting right by my bag, it had followed me.

“Shh!” I shushed it. “Leave me alone.” I grabbed onto the tree bark and started to scale the tree. I didn’t stop until I was well within the canopy, obscured from view by the warmly colored leaves. I sat on a branch to catch my breath before moving on.

“Mrow?” The black cat was sitting next to me. Its head was tilted as if it were curious.

I stared back at it for a moment, then sighed. “Fine. You can come with me, but be quiet!” I almost laughed at myself. Talking to a cat? Hysterical.

I got back up, stretching. “Okay, let’s do this.” I began jumping and swinging from tree to tree, staying as silent as I could. The cat followed along just behind me. Soon, I had found a good spot. I could see the blacksmith from here.

I watched him work until sunset. As the sky grew dark, he collected his things into a bag and threw on his jacket. “Here, kitty kitty!” He shouted. I looked at the cat. Did it seem… annoyed?  _ Maybe that’s just how cats look,  _ I thought.

The smith soon gave up and began to walk into the woods. Naturally, I followed him. After roughly a half-hour, he arrived at a cabin, hidden deep in a clearing surrounded by hills and rocky cliffs. It was large, yet still maintained the cozy aura every home in this town emanated.

“What are you doing so far into the woods…?” I thought aloud to myself.

“Probably preparing dinner,” A familiar voice behind me responded.

I turned around to find a young man perched on the same branch as me in a feline pose. Then, I felt myself fall into the darkness of unconsciousness.


	5. Class in Session

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Aaron meets someone new and gets some answers.

_ I was back in the flowery meadow again, the pitch-black sky still looming overhead. There seemed to be more flowers than before, each different than the last. Fire surrounded the clearing, but I wasn’t worried for some reason. It was calming now, like I was sitting next to a fireplace, drinking cocoa in the middle of a snowstorm. _

_ I heard a voice, muffled as if she was speaking underwater. I tried to ask who she was, but no sound came from my throat. I heard a pensive hum as if the voice were deciding what to do. _

_ Before anything more could happen, the flames began to die down and the flowers began to retreat into the ground. I was waking up.  _ We were not able to speak this time,  _ a calm voice echoed.  _ But we will soon.

* *  *  *  *

I woke up, stretched out on a soft couch, the light of dawn streaming directly into my eyes. In front of me were two boys. One was the blacksmith from earlier. He was in what looked like a kitchen, making a drink with his back to me. He had his jacket on, the fur lining almost up to his ears, and he had taken his gloves off. He turned around, his eyes revealed to me. His left eye was a flame-like scarlet, his right eye a steel-grey.

“Tea’s done,” he said, handing a mug to the other boy, who was lazily strewn sideways across a chair.

The other boy had quite an odd look to him. His pale skin was nearly transparent. He had shaggy, dark purple hair, a platinum-blond streak fully covering his right eye. His left eye, which was visible, was blood red and had deep bags beneath it. He didn’t look too old, maybe 19, but his eyes looked like they had seen the beginnings of days, the middles of dynasties, and the ends of lifetimes. The boy seemed rather lean and bony, like a flexible skeleton, and was shorter than both me and the blacksmith. He seemed vaguely familiar.

Balanced on the bridge of his nose was a pair of black, bottom-rimmed glasses, partially concealed beneath his hair. He wore a dark-green trench coat over a thin, cool-grey shirt. A glove that seemed to be made from the same material covered his right hand. Rust-colored sweat-pants stretched over his legs, and black leather shoes kicked idly. A mauve scarf wrapped around his neck and mouth.

He had been watching me with mild interest but turned his head to accept the cup from the blacksmith. As the blacksmith handed off the tea, I caught a glimpse of his left palm, a Token glowing faintly.

This Token was a common one, “fire”. Anyone with it could create bursts of flames, heat objects just by holding them, and even sometimes control fire into swirling shapes.

The boy took the cup, moved his scarf down to take a sip, then turned back to me. “Welcome back to the world of the living,” he said. I wasn’t focused on his words, but his voice, his voice was tired, as if he didn’t have any energy left in his body. A slight, unrecognizable but old accent, tinged in his words. It had taken me until I had heard his voice to realize two things:

1: This was the boy who I had seen just before falling.

2: He was identical to Zack.

I remember watching cartoons as a kid. Every episode, the villains would show up in a wacky costume to fool the hero. The hero never saw through it until the end, but I would shout at my screen, seeing through the shoddy disguise. Surely, anyone watching me had been shouting much the same.

I hadn’t noticed until just now because most of his face was obscured. The voice was the same, though. He may have been missing the mischievous glee, and his voice was slightly deeper, but it was definitely the same as Zack’s. 

Was this some weird disguise? He had escaped due to an explosion. Was the blacksmith the one who had caused it? Why bring me here then, and have me wake up to them in disguise? Were they toying with me?

I shot up from the sofa and reached above my head to ready my HALO, but I only grasped air. Zack had repositioned himself in the chair to be sitting straight. He was watching me with interest in his eyes, and, from the way his cheek tugged slightly upwards, a smirk on his face.

“I’d recommend you calm down,” he said. “You might break something.”

I glanced around the room, looking for an exit. Through the kitchen was a door, but I would have to make it past the blacksmith. Zack was still calmly drinking his tea. I pushed off with my legs, sprinting towards the door. I ducked under the blacksmith’s arm, now ablaze, and thought I was out. Then, a frying pan knocked my legs out from under me.

“Sorry, man, but you gotta calm down,” the blacksmith was looking down at me on the floor. “We just need to talk.” He lifted me bridal-style and plopped me on the sofa. 

“Talk?” I was woozy from my head hitting the tiled kitchen floor. “What?”

Zack was still examining me from behind his asinine disguise. “Let’s start with introductions. I’m Xavier, but you can call me X. Who are you?”

I scoffed. “Xavier? Do you think I’m blind? I know that’s you, Zack.”

His eyes narrowed, his voice becoming more serious, “Zack is my twin brother, and despite our being identical twins, I assure you that we couldn’t be more different.”

“Yeah, right. And I’m the king of the lily pads.”

“You can check my upper back if you like. You won’t find the  _ Beneluct _ no matter how hard you look,” He seemed mildly irritated, and I was skeptical, but I still got up to check his back. I had no clue what a “Beneluct” was, but I was sure that if I checked his back, I would find his Token.

He pulled his coat off from around his shoulders, revealing that his t-shirt was asymmetrical; the right sleeve longer than the left. I tugged the collar of his shirt down, examining his back just below his neck. No Token.

“You really are Zack’s twin brother?” I was bewildered. I went back to sit on the sofa as he nodded. “So what do you want with me?”

Xavier put his coat back on. “I should be asking you that. You’re the one who-”

“Hey! I didn’t get to introduce myself yet,” the blacksmith interrupted. I had already forgotten he was here. “I’m Blaise, Blaise Fierro, nice to meet you. And sorry again for hitting you with the frying pan,” He reached out to shake my hand, revealing the Token on his right palm.

It was another common Token, “metal”, but how did he have two? That isn’t possible. He shook my hand with a strong grip, shaking my arm up and down like cooked spaghetti.

“Ahem,” X cleared his throat. “As I was saying, what do  _ you _ want with  _ us _ ?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, you followed me home after asking everyone in town about X,” Blaise sat in a beanbag chair to the right of me.

“Wait.  _ You’re _ the Shadow?” I shot up again. “So you are working with Zack!”

“Sit down. No, I’m not,” Xavier waved his hand at me. “I would never work with my brother.”

“But, you worked with him in the Dirillian agency, and you were at the destruction of the embassy that reignited a war!”

“I did work with him before he betrayed me. As for participating in the cataclysm at the embassy, I tried to contain the blast from causing any damage to the surrounding cities,” he replied. Then, in a barely audible whisper, “It wasn’t enough, though…”

“Oh…” I was disappointed, this was the only lead I had on finding Zack. I had failed. I may find him eventually, but not before he caused more mayhem. But then, I realized something. “Wait. If you worked with him, then you might know where he’ll go!”

Blaise made a noise, a confused expression painted across his face. “What do you mean ‘where he’ll go’? He’s been locked up in Prism for centuries.”

X’s eyes widened. “No. He escaped? How?”

“I was there when it happened. One minute I was talking to him in his cell, the next there was a flash of light and I was knocked out.”

“That’s not possible, he had a Blocker! He shouldn’t have been able to use that much power at once!”

“He probably just overpowered it,” I responded.

Xavier looked at me disappointedly. “How much do you know about Tokens and Blockers?”

I thought for a moment. “Well, Tokens were created by ancients who intertwined their souls with the innate magic of the world. After millennia of evolution, the Tokens just kind of became a rare genetic trait. As for Blockers, they interrupt that connection between the Tokened and the world’s magic.”

“That’s an oversimplification,” Xavier said, shaking his head. “You got most of the stuff about Tokens right, but they aren’t wholly genetic. Sure, anyone with a Token can trace their lineage back to that first society of ancients, but the ancients didn’t harness the magic into their souls. It was already there. They just found a way to activate a gene that enables Tokens to be used.

“As for Blockers, they don’t interrupt the connection between a Tokened and magic because it doesn’t exist. Blockers were made to hinder the soul of a Tokened, and therefore any Blocker needs to be custom-made to the Tokened. That’s why Blockers are known to fail; most that are being used are mass-produced instead of being tailored to the Tokened.”

“So, Zack’s Blocker was tailor-made? Then how did he break through it?” I asked.

“I don’t know,” X frowned, seemingly frustrated to have to say that. “He may have been able to emit some light on his own, but not enough to cause damage of any kind.”

“We can worry about how he escaped later!” Blaise shouted. “We should be focusing on finding him!”

“I agree, but speaking with you two has raised more questions than answers,” I said.

“Yes, I understand. ANGEL has gone downhill in the last century,” Xavier responded. “Very well, I’ll answer what I can. I’ll need as much help as I can get to recapture Zack, and it’s better that the questions be answered now than in the middle of a battle.”

Bewildered once again, I stared at him. “Uh, okay. Let’s start with how you know I’m from ANGEL.”

“I was there when it was founded,” He said simply.

“What does that mean? And how are you and your brother alive and young today, but were both involved in a war centuries ago?”

“Ah, our Tokens are responsible for that.  _ Beneluct  _ and  _ Malescambre _ .”

“What do those mean? Can you please speak Common?”

Xavier sighed. “As I said, ANGEL has gone downhill education-wise the last century. I assume you know that each Token has a name? ‘Fire’, ‘Silence’, ‘Strength’, etcetera? Well, those are all translations, and simple ones at that. The symbols that Tokens manifest in were used as the written language of the ancients.”

He pointed to Blaise, who held out his hands and revealed both his Tokens. “Blaise’s Tokens are ‘fire’ and ‘metal’, but those are just the Common translations of the ancient language. In reality, they are ‘Fign’ and ‘Alfeucre’. Those two translate easily to Common, but others, such as mine and my brother’s, don’t.”

He pushed his hair up, revealing his right eye. It was pitch black, a void of emptiness with a purple symbol appearing to float in the middle.

He moved his hair back over his eye. “My Token, ‘Malescambre’, would likely be translated as ‘shadow’ by most. But in truth, it is a more complex word in ancient: ‘cursed’. Likewise, while most would translate Zack’s Token, ‘Beneluct’ as ‘light’, it is more literally translated to ‘blessed’.”

My head was spinning. I was so confused. “That doesn’t explain how you’ve been alive for so long.”

“Yes, it does. Just think for a moment.”

I shook my head and took a deep breath. “Whatever,” I said. “I’ve only got one question left. Why does he have two Tokens?” I pointed to Blaise, who shrugged.

“Family thing,” he replied. “I don’t pretend to know more than that.”

I looked at X, but he didn’t seem to want to answer. “If that’s all you have, then we should start working on finding Zack,” Xavier interjected. He stood up and began walking towards the other end of the house. Blaise got up and motioned for me to follow.

“How do you propose we do that?” I asked. “You were my last lead. We’d need a psychic to find him.”

X opened a door that led into a greenhouse. He picked up a pot with an odd-looking flower and turned to me and Blaise. “It’s a good thing we have four.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Follow my Twitter @Epzilon_ or my writing account where I post incorrect quotes and updates on chapters @ShadeOOC!


	6. Face Your Fears

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The boys fight their demons.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about this taking so long! A few updates: I started an author's commentary and I plan on starting a character file/lore recap. The first chapter of commentary is already up on this account, and the files will follow at some point. Follow my Twitter account @ShadeOOC for more updates, incorrect quotes and facts about the characters, and pictures of the characters I made using picrew!

“What?” I asked. Xavier didn’t respond, and he brought the flower pot to the kitchen. The flower had a large, blue bulb with several navy petals curving around it like tendrils. The flower gave off a faint glow, making it seem ethereal.

“Have you ever had a moment where you glance at something, anything? It could be looking up to a sky filled with leaves while on a walk in the forest. It could be a desk you just reorganized. It could be a complete stranger walking past on the street. But in that moment, you are certain you have seen this exact image before in a dream? As if someone had shown you a picture of your future?” Xavier asked.

“Uh, yeah. How did you know?” I stared at him. I had never really thought about it, but he was right. I had seen things in dreams that lined up perfectly with something I did days, weeks, even years later.

“The magic in everyone’s’ souls, Tokened or not, connects to the magic in the planet while we sleep. Usually, this connection isn’t enough to affect us, but sometimes, we can get through to the Rivers of Fate,”

“Rivers of Fate? I’ve never heard of that,” I said curiously.

“It’s not a physical place,” Blaise chirped up. “It exists in the metaphysical plane parallel to our own. You know what that is, right?”

“I think so. Don’t some Tokened use their Tokens to connect to it and draw power?” I asked.

Blaise nodded. “Yeah! The laws of physics are different between the two worlds,” he said. “Some Tokens are real… funky. For example, X’s Token allows him to blast people with shadows. Of course, shadows aren’t a tangible thing in our world, like metal or light, so he draws them in from the metaphysical plane.”

I held my head in my hands and groaned. “I think I’ve learned more today than the rest of my life combined. So, let me get this straight. Sometimes, dreams tell us the future by connecting us to a mirror dimension?”

“That’s an oversimplification, but yes,” Xavier replied. “I trust you can figure out what the plan is?”

I looked at him and Blaise, then at the plant. “We’re going to go into our dreams to get a hint at what we need to do and where we need to go to find Zack?” I asked. “But we can’t guarantee that we connect to this ‘River of Fate’, so what’s the plan from here?”

X grabbed a small knife from a drawer, and, after a moment of hesitation, cut the bulb of the flower from the stem. “This is a Blue Eclipse flower. An… old friend of mine made it with her Token. It amplifies our connection to the metaphysical plane while we sleep,” He crushed the bulb with the flat of the knife and placed it into a teapot. “Blaise?”

Blaise took the pot, filled it with water, and held it with his right hand over his left. His left hand engulfed itself in flames. “Okay,” I said. “I understand now, but what did you mean about having four psychics? There’s only three of us.”

Xavier pulled his scarf over his mouth. “You… won’t have to worry about that…” I glanced at Blaise, but he wouldn’t meet my gaze, instead focusing extra hard on the teapot.

After a few minutes of  _ excruciatingly awkward _ silence, Blaise announced, “The tea is ready!” He poured it into three novelty mugs. Mine read “Don’t talk to me until I’ve had my coffee!” followed by an image of a scowling tea bag.

We sat back where we had talked before, tea in hand, and each took a nice, long sip. It tasted like blueberries and lavender. “Oh,” X exclaimed. “I should return this,” He reached into his coat, pulling out my HALO and tossing it to me. It flew straight up to its spot above my head.

Before I could thank him, I drifted off to sleep.

* * * * *

I woke up in a void. I saw Xavier and Blaise next to me, but that was it. I felt the ground beneath me, but when I looked down, an endless abyss stretched infinitely below. Gazing out, I couldn’t see the end of the plane we were standing on. I couldn’t even tell what color our surroundings were, my eyes blurring whenever I tried to focus and figure it out.

Standing up fully, I looked over at Blaise and X. Blaise was kneeling on the ground, fiddling with something. Xavier has his eyes closed in focus. After a moment, he made a noise of discontent and made a motion with his arm. A pure, black sword, curved and chipped, formed from thin air. He held it by its leather-wrapped handle. “Get ready. They’re on their way.”

Blaise looked up. “I could’ve told you that,” he said as he stood. I could see what was in his hands now: two revolvers. They were each a different color, one silver, and one rusty orange. “Hey, Aaron was it? I hope they still teach ANGELs how to fight.”

Confused, I stared at him. “Yeah, I can hold my own. Why?” I grabbed my HALO from above my head. It expanded into a shield.

“Cause you’re about to have one of the scariest fights of your life,” He replied, a grim expression on his face.

“Just make sure to protect each other. Don’t feel bad if you aren’t much of a help,” X called. “These are our dee-” He was cut off as a deep rumbling echoed all around us.

The void grew dark, the seemingly non-existent walls contracting into stone. In no time, we were in a cave. “What’s going on?” I asked. The only light was from my HALO and the small fire Blaise had started to form from his arm. Before anyone could answer, we heard the rumbling again. Suddenly, rocks came raining down on us. 

I dodged out of the way, narrowly avoiding getting crushed. Looking up, I saw more heading right for Blaise’s head. I tackled him, holding my shield above our heads to protect us. I couldn’t find Xavier anywhere.

The cave’s space had been cut down to a quarter of what it originally was. I felt my breathing begin to quicken as I realized how compact it had gotten. I closed my eyes and began taking deep breaths.  _ It’s okay. You’ll be fine. You can get out of this. _

Usually, that worked. I could distract myself by repeating a calming mantra. And I did end up distracted, but not from the mantra. Instead, I was distracted by a sound. A sound like hail on a wooden floor. A sound that frightened me more than the enclosed space. A sound that was rapidly getting louder.

_ Spiders. _

Spiders began to shoot from the cracks between rocks. And, I don’t mean tiny ones. They were each at least as big as a golf ball, some as large as tennis balls. Their large fangs dripped with a red ooze. Their fur was matted in slime. Their eyes locked on Blaise and me, dead set on ending us.

I need to confess something. I kind of shut down. I squeezed my eyes tight, curled into a ball, and hid under my shield. I could still hear the spiders, though. They tapped along the rocky ground, they banged on my shield. I heard Blaise yelp. I felt guilty for not helping him, but I was paralyzed by fear.

Blood rushed in my ears. My heartbeat was deafening. I could hear something, just barely over it. A woosh, followed by some gurgles and clicks. I felt the shield lift off my back, and I kicked upwards, hoping to protect myself from the oncoming arachnid.

“Ow!” Blaise shouted. Tentatively, I opened my eyes. We were still in the cave, but Blaise’s fire burned way brighter. I could feel it from where I was. He was a few feet away, sitting on his butt, rubbing his nose. “That hurt!”

Covering the ground around us was ash. “Wh-what happened?”

“Thank god that your greatest fear was cave spiders. They’re really easy for me to deal with. I didn’t even have to waste a shot!” He grinned happily, but I could see his eyes searching mine to see if I was okay.

“I-I’m sorry that I wasn’t much help there…” I slumped onto the ground, a cloud of ash flying up from the impact.

“Hey, man, don’t worry about it. Like I said, those were your greatest fears. I’m probably gonna shut down just as quick in a few minutes,”

“What do you mean?” I was worried. If he hadn’t saved me there, I would have been spider-chow, and now he was saying he wouldn’t be able to fight whatever came next?

“We’re fighting our nightmares. The flower enhances our dreams, but it also enhances our nightmares,” He began to rub the handle of one of his revolvers. “Y’know the part of your brain that controls fear? The amygdala? It’s also involved in dreaming. So, by increasing the productivity of the parts of the brain that control dreams, it also increases our fear. We end up having to face them whenever we use the flower,”

“You know a lot more than you seem to,” I said. I didn’t mean it in any rude way, but he had surprised me. Up until now, Xavier has seemed like the smart one of the two.

“Hey, I’ve got two degrees and a doctorate! Besides, neuroscience is kind of… important to me, regardless of my… difficult history with peers in the subject,” He once again dropped his grin, a more serious expression painting his face. Sadness? Anger? Mourning? It was too complicated for me to discern.

“Hey…” I reached over to try and comfort him, but before I could, another rumble shook the cave.

“Oh no,” Blaise went wide-eyed. The rocks began to fall away, replaced by a torrent of water. In no time, we were completely submerged. The pressure of the water was crushing, but I was able to see some light far above me. In the corner of my eye, I saw Blaise already swimming to the top.

I swam upwards too. My lungs began to burn from the lack of air, and my eyes began to go dark, but I felt a hand grab mine and pull me up. I crawled onto a large wooden platform, sucking in air like a vacuum. I saw a blurry form in front of me, a soaked Blaise looking out towards the edge of the raft.

When my eyes refocused, I followed his line of sight to the horizon. There were two iron mountains and a bunch of tiny dots. I realized it was a ship, a massive ship, that had sunk. People were screaming for help.

“Help me paddle!” Blaise yelled. I frantically began scooping water backward, trying to get the raft towards the people. We were moving, but not fast enough.

“Can you propel us with a blast of fire?” He looked at me, apprehension plastered on his face.

“I’ll try,” he said. He dug one arm under the ropes holding the raft together and pushed the other one out behind him. For a moment, he didn’t do anything. He squeezed his eyes shut, gritted his teeth, and grunted, but still, nothing happened. “I’m too wet. The fire won’t start. Keep paddling,” He began kicking in the water. I followed suit, and we managed to up the pace slightly, but still not enough. I could see more and more people disappearing beneath the waves.

I put my head down on the raft and focused on paddling. A few moments went by, the screaming growing quieter and quieter when suddenly there was a huge BOOM! We both looked up. Part of the ship was completely ablaze, and chunks of the hull were raining down. We were almost there, close enough to see the faces of those who were left treading the water.

“LOOK OUT!” I heard Blaise shout to a woman up ahead. He held out his arm. A flaming shard of iron, as big as a car, was hovering right above the woman’s head. “GO!” he spat out. I could hear the tension in his voice. The woman tried as hard as she could, but she must have been tired from trying to stay afloat. She wasn’t able to move very fast. I heard a defeated grunt next to me as the shard dropped into the sea, taking the woman with it.

I looked around. We were the only ones left. It was chaos around us, but the world was in a state of unfitting silence. The people had drowned, the metal no longer rained down. The only thing I could hear was the soft lapping of the waves against our raft and a quiet sobbing beside me.

“I… I couldn’t help them…” His head was to the raft, his free hand pounding the wood beside him. “We were so close…  _ I _ was so close… But… I couldn’t do anything…”

I swallowed hard. I’d experienced my fair share of things like that, and it never didn’t hurt. I, at least, had a mentor who helped me realize that sometimes you do all you can, but you can’t do everything. Something told me that Blaise had never learned that lesson.

I got out of the water, crawling my way onto the raft. I heard shuffling behind me, and I thought that Blaise was making his way up too. When I turned around, all I could see was his tan hand sinking into the water. I shot up, grabbing him and ripping him up.

“No! Let me go!” He tried to get out of my arms and jump back in, but I held him tight. “Please! Just… let me die…” His struggling slowed, and he slumped over. “Please…”

“I’ve got you, bud,” I hugged him close. “It’s not your fault.”

He looked up at me, tears in his heterochromatic eyes. “I couldn’t save them…” He sniffled, and we sat there for a moment on the raft. After a few minutes, I let go. He crawled away, bringing his knees to his chest.

“Do… you wanna talk about it?” I asked tentatively. “It’s fine if you don’t! I just-”

“No, it’s okay. There isn’t much to talk about anyway. When I was younger, maybe twelve or thirteen, it’s kind of blurry now, there was a disaster. It was when I was around the age where Tokens become the most uncontrollable. Even with my power, even with two, I wasn’t able to save… them,” He sighed. “I lost a lot of loved ones. After that, I bounced from school to school, got my degrees, tried to forget about it. I didn’t meet X for a while, not until it was too late for him to really help me with it. Speaking of Dusky, you wouldn’t mind keeping this between us, right?”

“Yeah, don’t worry about it,” I nodded.

“Thanks, Feathers,” he smirked half-heartedly.

“Feathers?”

“Yeah, because of the wings and stuff? If you don’t like it I-”

“No, I like it,” I chuckled. “ _ Feathers _ . Cool. I’ll have to come up with one for you. What about… Hot-Guy?” He burst out laughing as I stared blankly at him. Then, I blushed. “No! Wait, I mean-”

“You can come up with a better one later, Feathers, for now, we have to find Xavier.” He was still snickering, which just served to make my face redder. “He’ll probably need our help if he hasn’t finished already.”

“So how do we find him?” Blaise just pointed behind me. At some point, we had floated within the wreckage of the ship. Looking around me, I could see broken glass, flaming furniture, and an upside-down piano that had been bolted to the floor. The walls were all white with gold accents (they reminded me of my hoodie) and the carpets were all red velvet. Behind me was an iron door in a part of the ship that was magically undisturbed.

The raft bumped against the piece with the door. “This looks like a good place to start,” Blaise said before hopping off. I joined him just as the raft sank into the waters below. Blaise seemed determined to keep looking at the door instead. “You wanna do the honors?”

I grabbed the valve on the door, twisting hard. It opened with a hiss into the blank plane again, but the plane was no longer blank. There, about 50 feet away, was Xavier, surrounded by demons.


	7. The Girl in the Meadow

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The boys get what they came for. Then, they have a tea party with a ghost.

The demons (or rather, nightmares) floated around him in a circle. At first, I thought they were just black orbs, but as I got closer, I could see wide eyes on the ones facing me. X had his sword drawn and was slashing at them. Every few moments, a couple of the nightmares’ eyes would become gaping maws with rows of dagger-like teeth and they would rush him.

X held out his arm as smoky tendrils of pure darkness shot into the nightmare that was charging at him. It had no effect, and it just kept going. Just as it was about to reach him, Xavier thrust his sword out and skewered the nightmare. It disappeared instantly, leaving nothing behind.

X looked up to see which one would rush him next, spotting us behind the crowd. “Finally! A little help?” He shouted. Suddenly, a bunch of nightmares turned towards Blaise and me, and my heart stopped. They were looking directly into my eyes, into my soul. I shut my eyes, shook my head, and drew my HALO into its shield form. Blaise did the same, drawing his guns.

We split up. I ran left and Blaise ran right. I barreled through the nightmares, several bouncing off my shield as I ran to Xavier. I heard gunshots to my side. Blaise reached X at the same time as me, his guns smoking. “About time,” Xavier said as he slashed at a nightmare charging him down.

We stood back to back to back. A nightmare sped in my direction, but I held up my shield and it bounced upwards. X caught it with a stab of his sword. I threw my shield just in time to cut a nightmare clean in half, as well as a few more behind it.

Blaise fired so fast that he didn’t even seem to be aiming, but I saw nightmares dropping left and right. I heard a whooshing noise just behind my head. I turned to see Xavier’s sword pierce a nightmare that was headed right for me. “Pay attention,” he growled.

I caught my shield as it returned from bouncing around the crowd of nightmares. “Feathers?” I heard Blaise call over the fighting. “Give me a boost, I have an idea.” I kneeled down and held my shield above my head. Blaise ran towards me, jumping and kicking off my shield as I pushed up as hard as I could. He flew into the sky, twisting like a top as blasts of fire and bullets rained down around us.

He managed to take out almost all of the nightmares with that one move. I stared as he landed on one leg, waving his arms around to keep from falling. “Nice! I think you got them all-” I was interrupted by a blow to my back. It felt like getting hit by a rocket-boosted freight train, and I went flying forwards. 

I stopped out of nowhere, and I looked up to see that X had caught me. He sliced at me with his sword, but I ducked as it whizzed over my head, cutting the nightmare that had struck me in the back. He hit me in the head with the hilt of his sword, knocking me on to my butt. “What did I  _ just _ tell you to do? Pay attention!” He reached his gloved hand out and pulled me up. “ _ Now _ we have gotten them all.”

I rubbed my head to ease the swelling as Blaise ran over to us. “Nice job, Feathers! You’re pretty okay in a fight!” He was grinning. “You too, Dusky-boy, I haven’t seen you fight in a  _ long _ time.”

“That was a pretty sweet move you pulled, but you could’ve shot us!” I replied to him.

Blaise emptied the chambers of his revolvers and reloaded them. “Aw, don’t worry about it! I used my Token to adjust my aim whenever it was off,” He did a little trick with them, spinning them on his finger before holstering them on his pouch-covered belt.

I sat down, exhausted. “Is this what every day is like with you guys?”

X and Blaise sat next to me. “Usually, Blaise works in his shop while I wander the town or garden. I fight off the occasional forest predator or mugger, but that’s about it,” Xavier replied. “We don’t get much crime in Caefild, anyway, so life’s pretty calm.”

“Oh. I’m sorry for interrupting that peaceful life… It sounds nice.”

X shook his head. “No, recapturing Zack is my biggest priority. I’d do anything to make sure he stays locked up.”

“Yeah, and I like the excitement and the fighting. Like Xavier said, not much happens in Caefild,” Blaise spoke up.

I smiled, but then I remembered why we were here and frowned again. “Didn’t we come in here for information on where to find Zack? What do we do now?”

Xavier looked around. “Give it a minute.” Right as he said that the air around us shifted and the scene changed.

We were now in some kind of great hall, like what you would find in a castle. It was oddly well lit for how large it seemed; it didn’t have the dimness you would expect from a cavernous room lit only by torches. The walls were made from stone bricks, pillars were evenly spaced around the room, and there was a red carpet leading to a throne.

Sitting atop the throne, of course, was Zack. His bright yellow hair was slightly more well-groomed, but it still exhibited the same lack of care it had before. He no longer had the metal Blocker strapped around his neck, but, oddly, he did still wear the black straightjacket. The sleeves had been burned apart, and his hands stuck out of holes a few inches above the cuffs.

He sat sideways, lazing across the throne, feet kicking lazily over the armrest. Flip flops dangled from his feet, an odd choice considering it was almost winter. He scratched his face wildly. Suddenly, he shot up and turned straight ahead in his seat. His pure white-pupiled eyes found mine, piercing through me like an arrow.

“Come here, I have a job for you,” He called. Without meaning to, I moved closer. Zack continued to scratch his face as if there was a rash on his cheeks that he couldn’t get rid of. “Something’ll go wrong any day now.  _ He _ probably knows I’m free, so it’s a matter of time before we’re interrupted.”

He itched harder, his pale face becoming marred by pinkish-red lines. “I need you to distract him, knock him out, slow him down, whatever! Just, make sure he isn’t here before I’m done. I just got freed, I can’t let him spoil my fun before it begins!” His eyes unfocused as he began to think of… whatever he had planned. Zack began giggling to himself, and his hand dropped to his sides. I cleared my throat, my body once again acting without me. “Hm? Oh, where was I?”

“You were asking me to deal with him?” I replied, but the voice wasn’t mine. It was much deeper and more tired. It also seemed a bit familiar.

Zack returned to his manic scratching. “Ah, yes!” He closed his eyes for a moment in thought. “Now, he’ll probably be on his way… And he never flies or drives… Y’know what? I’ll text you a map when I figure it out. Okay, on your way now! Buh-bye!”

I stood still, waiting for something. When Zack didn’t notice me still there, I cleared my throat once more and reached my hand out. Like the voice, it wasn’t mine. It was bulkier and was clothed in a navy blue suit and white glove.

Zack looked at me once more, first in confusion (and distaste?), then with suspicion and thought. Finally, he rolled his eyes and grabbed my arm. Zack began to glow brightly so that I had to look away. My arm heated up, a searing pain shooting from my body. The last thing I heard was the voice that wasn’t mine screaming in agony as the scene changed around me once more.

The meadow. I was back in the meadow. Xavier and Blaise stood in front of me. Their faces were deep in thought and twisted by shock respectively. I was sure my own expression was closer to Blaise’s. When Blaise noticed where we were, he nudged Xavier and tilted his head, indicating our surroundings.

Xavier took in where we were, his eye widening. He rushed past me. I turned to see where he had gone. Behind me was a large marble and glass greenhouse. Kudzu and vines speckled with flowers crawled along the walls like rivers down a mountain. Xavier threw open the door, paused for a moment, then rushed in.

Looking at Blaise inquisitively, I followed. Inside, all sorts of plants and flowers were growing. Some, I recognized, such as a bed of morning glories hanging from the wall. Others I knew as extremely rare flowers, like the massive red flower that was contained in its own section. The petals looked like tongues covered in spots, and the name eluded me. Other plants I had never seen before. There was a blue and red tree that seemed to grow upside down, a tall flower with long, ribbon-like petals that touched the ground and shimmered like waterfalls, and several flowers hanging from the ceiling that sprayed a pleasant-smelling pink mist over the other plants every few minutes.

In the center of the greenhouse, X sat at a circular table with his back to us. As Blaise and I approached, I heard feminine giggling. Sitting across from Xavier at the table was a girl. She wore army-green coveralls over a pink shirt with doodles of fruit. Her purple hair was the same shade as X’s and it was draped over her seat. Her hair was so long, it hovered just barely above the ground, and it looked like the softest thing in the world. Intertwined in her hair was a flower crown made from blue and pink roses.

Her skin was a similar shade of bronze to Blaise’s, maybe a bit paler. In fact, she looked very similar to Blaise. Same slightly large nose, same thick eyebrows, even her eyes were heterochromatic like his. But, instead of being silver and orange, her left eye was hot pink and her right was green. Both had deep bags beneath them. Tied around her neck was Xavier’s scarf.

When she saw us, she shot out of her chair and nearly tackled Blaise in a bear hug. “Oh my gosh!” she squealed in delight. I had heard her voice somewhere before. “I finally get to meet you in person! Well, kind of…”

She let go of Blaise and turned to me. I flinched back, expecting to be tackled as well, but she just thrust her hand out. I accepted the gesture and shook her cold hand. “And you! I was trying to tell you that Dusky isn’t that bad, but you are such a light sleeper that I couldn’t get a good connection! Nevermind that now! Sit and have some tea!”

She pushed Blaise and me to the table and into our seats. In front of us were a porcelain tea set and a tower of pastries covered in berries. I was going to take one but hesitated. Then, I looked to Xavier who had already piled his plate with sweets, shrugged, and took a few for myself. Blaise followed suit. 

“So… uh… who are you?” I asked, tentatively.

The girl’s eyes widened in shock. “Oh! I’m so sorry. I forgot to introduce myself,” she said. “I’m Aisling, Aisling Fiora. Tea?” She picked up the teapot and a cup. On the back of her hands, I saw two Tokens.

On her right hand was a green one that looked similar to the fairly common “plant” Token, but it had a diamond in the middle. The pink one on her left hand, however, I had never seen before.

“Yes, please,” said Xavier. She poured him a steaming cup.

“I’m Aaron Aikos, and yes, please. I-I’m sorry, but am I supposed to know you?” I asked. She frowned for a moment.

“No, I guess not. I’m Blaise’s… Oh, how many is it now? His great great great great great… great great… great grandmother.” She looked at Xavier. “Was that enough? I think that was enough?” He nodded.

“What?! But, you look as old as us?”

“Oh, thank you! But, looks can be deceiving. Take Dusky, for instance. He’s actually three-hundred fifty-seven years old! I mean sure, he has his Token, but still.”

I stared at Xavier who was focused on his pastries, then I looked back at Aisling. “So, your Token makes you immortal too?” Immediately, her eyes darkened.

“No… Actually, I’m dead.”

I dropped my cup, tea sloshing over the sides and scolding my hand, but I didn’t even notice. Once again, I looked at Blaise and X. Neither met my gaze. Aisling closed her eyes and took a deep breath before returning to her previously chipper attitude. “It’s all in the past now! Don’t worry about it. What matters now is you three finding and capturing Nite- I mean, Z.”

“How did you know we were looking for Zack?” I picked up my teacup and took a sip. The tea was sweet with a tinge of nuttiness.

“Nothing happens in dreams that get past me,” she responded, then looked at X. “I expect you know where he is by now?”

He nodded grimly. “Yeah. I was hoping I wouldn’t have to go back there…” Aisling reached across the table and put her hand on his shoulder.

“You can do it. I believe in you,” she retracted her hand. “And do you have a plan?”

“Sure do, Gam-Gam!” Blaise chirped up. Aisling spat out her tea and laughed wildly. Blaise grinned and waited for her to stop before continuing. “Maybe I’ll just stick to Ash. Anyway, once we reach him, one of us will get a Blocker on him.”

“I thought Blockers wouldn’t work on him?” I asked.

“They will, provided it has the right imprint, or at least something close to his,” Blaise replied. “Unfortunately, I was hoping his Blocker from Prism was still on. Now, I have to make one from scratch, and I don’t think I have all the pieces.”

“Which means…?” I questioned.

“Which means that Blaise and I both will have to go places we wish we could forget…” X answered. Blaise shuddered.

Aisling nodded solemnly. “Well, it’s almost time for you three to wake up.” She grabbed my hand and shook it. “It was very nice to meet you, Aaron. Take care of these two for me, okay?” I nodded. She then stood up and hugged Blaise. “I’m sorry about your parents and the burden you’re left with, but I know you can get through anything life throws at you.” Blaise hugged her tight, tears forming in the corners of his squeezed-shut eyes.

“I’ll meet up with you two in a bit,” Xavier said. “Get ready for the trip while I’m still asleep. We have a long way to go.” Blaise reluctantly let go of Aisling and nodded.

“Don’t take too long, lovebirds,” Blaise teased. Then, the world rushed behind me and I woke up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Once again, thank you for reading. Check the story's Twitter @ShadeOOC for chapter updates, character picrews, incorrect quotes, and answers to questions that get asked through my Curious Cat!


	8. Hungry For Power

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With their destination clear, Xavier, Aaron, and Blaise head out.

When we woke up, the sun was just cresting over the tree line, shining through the windows into my eyes. Groaning, I sat up on the couch and rubbed my eyes. Blaise was slowly getting up from his sleep, but X was still strewn across his cushioned chair in a deep sleep. His head hung off the edge, his hair hanging down in a cascade of purple and platinum blonde. A small smile was where his usual frown was.

I checked my phone. I hadn’t gotten service since I arrived in Caefild, but the clock still worked. It was just before 7 in the morning, we’d slept nearly a full day, and despite not having eaten for almost thirty hours, I felt completely full (if a bit groggy).

I stood up and stretched, my joints popping loudly. “Ugh, dude. Mind doing that a bit quieter?” Blaise complained, trying to fix his bed head. “It’s gross.”

Ignoring him, I yawned. “Got anything with caffeine?” Blaise jerked his head towards the kitchen sink, messing up his hair further. I walked over, searching for a moment before finding the instant coffee machine and making myself a cup. I started cleaning out my mug, then decided against using it. I didn’t want to risk having to see my nightmares again. After rummaging through some cabinets, I grabbed a mug with a baby cow drinking a latte and the words “I love CALFfeine” on it.

Blaise sat at a counter behind me. “So,” I started. “X and… your, uh, great-times-whatever grandmother…?”

His face reddened slightly. “Yeah, uh… He’s told me a lot about her before, but I’ve never met her until today…”

“She what you expected?” I grabbed the handle of my mug as the coffee started to stop dripping.

Blaise thought for a moment. “Yeah, I guess she was,” he answered. “Sugar’s behind the toaster.”

“Thanks.” I put one cube of sugar and a healthy amount of cream into my drink. “They seemed to… like each other?”

His face reddened even more. “They grew up together, I think. Inseparable. They all worked for the same unit during that old war too, Zack included. Then, I’m not sure what happened, but they got separated or something. Ash died before they found each other again. He doesn’t talk about that part too much.” His back was now to me as he made himself a cup of coffee. “Too painful I guess, but the rest of the time, I’ve never heard him talk about anyone like that. Only Aisling.”

I nodded, then glanced at Xavier. His gloved hand was clutched tight to his scarf. I decided to change the subject. “So, where do we go from here?”

“Well, X already knows where Zack is, so that’s covered. But, we need to make sure we can actually capture him. My plan was to steal his old Blocker and add some of Xavier’s DNA to it. That mixed with whatever they used in the Blocker originally should be able to hold him until we could get one tuned,” He dumped a load of sugar into his coffee and chugged it. “But, since Z’s Blocker is gone, the plan becomes a lot harder…”

Blaise went to make another cup of coffee. “How so?”

“Well, for one, I have to make a new Blocker from scratch. I have some of the pieces here, but the problem is the power source. It’s extremely expensive if we want it to last as long as we need, and I don’t have that kind of cash,” He once again mixed a large amount of sugar into his mug and downed it in one go. “Fortunately, I know where we can get one. Unfortunately, I’d have to see…  _ her _ again…”

“Her?” I asked.

“My old roommate, lab partner, whatever! It’s not important. Either way, I left some stuff in my lab when I ran out. Hopefully, she hasn’t found my stash yet and it’s still there. If we’re sneaky, maybe she won’t even see us!” His eyes glazed over in hopefulness before he shook his head. “Getting the Blocker made once I have everything should be a piece of cake, but…”

“But what?”

“But… Someone’s going to have to steal some of Zack’s DNA and get it to me…” I stared at him, mouth agape. He waved his hands around. “Not too much, nothing significant! Just a few hairs will do. Although… blood and tears work best… but some hair is probably our goal! And once I get the Blocker primed, well…”

“Well, what?” I didn’t like where this was going.

“Well, someone’s going to have to get it around his neck…”

I blanched. “Oh boy…”

He glanced at Xavier. “It doesn’t matter right now. Let’s just focus on preparing for the trip.” He tossed me a cold bag. “Here, pack some food and waters. I’m gonna go take a shower and pack my clothes. Then, we can head into town to grab your stuff and my tools.” He sniffed. “Actually, you can shower first.”

* * * * *

An hour and a half later, and Blaise and I were ready to head out. He had a grey-camo duffle bag packed with clothes, a cooler bag filled with enough food to last a week, and his wallet. He didn’t have a phone, and when I asked him about it, he snorted and replied, “Shoddy craftsmanship.”

“Okay, then,” I looked at Xavier, still passed out. “Should we wait for him, or…?”

Blaise grabbed a pen and a notepad off the fridge. “Nah, I’ll leave him a note saying to meet us at the train station after he’s all packed,” After scribbling for a moment, he ripped the page off and stuck it to X’s forehead. “Alright, let’s go.”

We stepped out into the brisk, late-autumn air and began our walk to the town. On the way, we passed by Blaise’s workshop. He ran in for a moment before returning. His belt-pouches were more full, he had a leather bag over his shoulder, and the two revolvers I had seen during our dream were holstered to the sides of his thighs.

As we got into the town proper, locals smiled warmly at us and waved. Blaise waved back, greeting every single one. “Hey, Darla! Hey, Jamie! Raven, how’s your dog? Mayor Tiddlywink, how’re ya doin’?”

The old mayor cackled. “Oh, I’m doing fine Baste! Just bannin’ telescopes once and fer’all!”

As we reached the Inn where I was staying, Blaise split off from me. “I’ll meet you out here, I just gotta get something first,” He said, before heading into the haberdashery. I shrugged and entered the Vesper Inn.

After heading up to my room, packing up my things, and paying off the room ($100 for all three nights. Steal!), I met Blaise outside. Among his other bags now was a paper gift bag. “All set?” He asked. “Train time it is, then!”

Xavier was already there when we arrived. He looked the same, for the most part, except for the fact that his hair was now a darker shade of purple. He was holding his own purple-camo duffel bag that matched Blaise’s. “I already got the tickets, so we can just get on,” Xavier said once we got there.

“Wait! Before we go, I got everyone something.” From his gift bag, he pulled a fancy top hat and a pair of gloves. The top hat, velvet and plum with a satin, lilac ribbon, he gave to Xavier. The gloves were thick and white, with gold zippers on the fingertips. He handed them to me. 

“Just wanted to commemorate us meeting before we all die,” Blaise said, oddly chipper. “Well, Aaron and I. Dusky’ll survive.” And with that sentiment, we hopped on the train and I said goodbye to Caefild.

* * * * *

A rural countryside rushed by the window, obscured slightly by the swirling mass of the falling leaves. Tall trees stripping their warm-hued leaves littered the plains, slowly becoming less densely packed as the train left Caefild. Our car was empty.

I sat across from Xavier and Blaise, the latter passed out and resting his head on the former’s shoulder. I fiddled with my HALO, tightening loose screws and testing it. I pressed a button on the rim, and it hummed. I pressed it again and it stopped. Satisfied, I brought it back up to hover over my head.

X had been staring out the window for the whole train ride so far. I couldn’t tell if he was lost in thought or if that was just how he normally looked. His red eye was glazed over. A bright orange leaf stuck to the window, and Xavier was briefly snapped out of his trance as he watched it fly past behind the train. His eye unfocused again.

Finally, I stood up. “I’m going to the snack car. Want anything?” He didn’t respond. “Hey? X?” I snapped my fingers in front of his face. He made a slight startled movement that knocked Blaise off his shoulder, then looked at me finally.

“Whuddichusay?”

I furrowed my brow, looking down at him. His usual air of aloofness was missing, replaced by, from my short time knowing him, uncharacteristic worry. Without his tired eyes, I would have assumed he was just some lost kid, new to independence.

“I asked if you wanted anything from the snack car,” I said. “I’m headed there now.”

“Uh, yeah. Something with fruit, thanks.” I nodded and headed towards the back of the train. 

The train was even more empty than when I had ridden into Caefild; a noticeable lack of elderly couples. It was eerie, walking through the train cars. Each one felt the same as the last: same dark brown wooden tables, same green rug and plush benches, same scenery rushing past the windows.

As I walked through three, four, five, six cars, I began to feel dizzy. It felt like I wasn’t moving at all. I was about to fall to my knees when I finally reached the snack car. I ordered a blueberry parfait for myself, a cup of pomegranate seeds and some apple slices for Xavier, and some cinnamon biscuits for when Blaise woke up.

When I got back to our car, it was like nothing had changed. Xavier stared out the window with Blaise resting his head on X’s shoulder. I put their food on the table in front of them, then sat down to enjoy my parfait.

“Thanks…” Xavier murmured, turning to sit straight ahead. He began nibbling on his fruit, focusing intently on it.

“So,” I began. “Where are we headed?”

“Hoboton. It’s where Blaise lived for a while,” Xavier said. “But we have to get off at Phantic Station in Waylain. It’s the closest stop.” He reached into Blaise’s pocket and pulled out a map before sliding it across the table.

It was a map of Salisea, with towns, cities, and railways marked. Caefild was all the way up in the North-Eastern corner, meanwhile, Hoboton and Waylain were closer to the Central-Northern part of the nation. They were about 1,570 miles away.

Our train wasn’t going too fast for now; it was an old-fashioned coal model. Once we reached Avalon City in a few hours, though, we would be able to switch over to a much faster train. I’d just have to hope I didn’t see any coworkers who would ask me what I’m doing.

Looking back at the map, I noticed something. “Why aren’t there any roads between Hobton and Waylain?” I asked Xavier.

“Protected forest,” he replied, simply. “We’re gonna have to walk the whole way. It’s only about half a day’s journey, though.”

Sighing, I pulled out my phone. I finally got some reception now that we were close to the city, so I checked my notifications.  _ Spam, spam, spam. _ My only text was from my sibling saying she had reached our hometown for her vacation. I also had an email from my boss sent out to about twenty different agents about some sort of emergency, but just as I read it I received another saying it had been resolved. Nothing important there, I guess. I scrolled through the rest of my emails that I had missed while the train traveled onwards.

*  *  * *  *

Around 2 in the afternoon, our train arrived at Scala Station in Avalon. As the train stopped, Blaise was flung forward, smashing his head against the biscuits I got him and jumping awake. “Huh? Huhwhuh?”

“We’re here,” Xavier said, pulling his scarf up to cover his face. We stepped off the train into a small, oak station. Log benches and old-timey furniture decorated the platform, which was barren of any people besides the workers at the station. No one really traveled up to the Northern North-East unless they had family there.

We walked through the train station, exiting the platform into a hallway that seemed progressively newer and newer. I never really knew why the architect of Scala Station decided to change the designs of the platforms to be based around different time periods. Finally, we reached the crowded atrium of the station.

I checked our tickets against an electronic schedule. Our train didn’t depart for another six hours, so we had time to kill in the city. “Anything you guys wanna do?” I asked Blaise and Xavier. They both shook their heads. “Alright, I’m gonna go check up on my apartment. You can come along if you want.”

“Already inviting me to your place?” Blaise smirked. “Wow.”

I groaned, walked outside to the streets, and hailed a cab. Blaise and I got in as I told the driver my address, but X stayed outside. “I’ll meet you there,” he said. Blaise was about to say something, but he stopped himself.

“Alright?” I replied. “Do you need my address or-”

“No, thank you,” he answered. I shrugged, shut the door, and waited to get home.

My apartment wasn’t too far from the train station, but the traffic made it take like half an hour. When we arrived at my door, Xavier was already waiting for us. I unlocked the door and switched on the light.

My apartment was fairly nice. I had a small kitchen, two bedrooms, three bathrooms, a balcony, and the main room between them all. The walls were painted with an off-white cream color and had portraits of different places from my hometown. A large birdcage sat in the corner near the TV, open and empty. I had given my cockatiel, Azzy, to my sibling while I was away. He’d brought Azzy with him on vacation.

I tossed Blaise the TV remote before walking into my room. “I’ll be out in a minute! Watch whatever!” I yelled from behind the door. I opened my closet (filled with identical sweatshirts) and grabbed a few. No telling how much longer I’d be out for.

I then walked over to the guest room. Usually, my sibling would crash there when she was in the city, but she hadn’t cleaned up. Trash littered the floor: a half-eaten candy bar, a half-full pineapple soda, and a bag of chips among the mess. The TV was also on, which was weird because I was sure I had turned it off before I left. I cleaned up the room, then stepped back out.

“If either of you wants to take a nap, I just cleaned the guest room,” I said.

“I got enough sleep on the train.” Blaise was sitting criss-cross-applesauce on the floor watching cartoons. Clearly, he had gotten into my cupboards because he had a big bowl of cinnamon cereal in his lap that he was eating with a ladle.

Xavier piped up from behind me and said, “I’ll try to take one.” He walked into the room and closed the door. I sat down behind Blaise on the couch to watch cartoons with him.

“We don’t get any good channels up in Caefild,” he said. “Not enough electricity makes it out there.”

We watched TV until a few hours after it got dark. It was 6:30. I quickly cleaned once more before knocking on the guest room door. “X? Time to go.” I opened the door to Xavier lying on the bed, eyes open but unfocused. “Xavier? Hey.”

“Sorry,” he said, getting up. “Wasn’t able to fall asleep.”

We hailed another cab, X walked again, and we made it with fifteen minutes to spare before our train arrived. This train was much more crowded than the one to Caefild. Waylain was a fairly popular city, though. As we got on the train, I thought I saw a glimpse of fluffy, silver hair through the mass.

_ Why is he here? _ I thought.  _ She should be back in Marbol on vacation by now. _ I shook my head and got on the train. If it really was him, I couldn’t let him see me. I was supposed to be searching for missing fugitives on the South-East coast, not traveling to the middle of Salisea with someone who looks identical to the current Most Wanted. Regardless of our being siblings, there’s no clean way to get out of that situation.

I didn’t see him for the rest of the ride, so I just assumed that I was mistaken. The train wouldn’t arrive at Waylain until the morning, so we all took the chance to fall asleep. Blaise drifted off first, resting his head once more on Xavier’s shoulder as X looked out the window. I yawned, then fell asleep a few minutes later.

*  *  *  *  *

“How much longer until we reach Hoboton?” I asked. The sun was starting to set over the barren trees. The train ride to Waylain had been  _ long _ . We ended up checking into a hotel, but we slept in and didn’t leave until noon.

Xavier checked his map, looked around, then checked it again. Frowning, he said, “At least an hour or so. I’m sure we’re close, but I can’t figure out where we go from here.” He surveyed our surroundings again.

“Let’s wait until night,” Blaise chipped in. “We can follow the lights once they turn on. We should be close enough after all this traveling.” I looked to X, who just nodded and sat against a tree.

The sky was orange now, infested with the twilight. Usually, it would seem like a comforting fire to me, but something was off tonight. It was still, not a cloud in sight. I could see through all the trees around us, but I still felt like we were being watched.

Xavier noticed my uneasiness. “What’s wrong?”

I gazed through the woods again. Nothing but orange light and the trees silhouetted against it. “I don’t know… Something just seems off-”

I was interrupted as a blast of blue light shot directly into Xavier’s face. Blaise and I jumped up in surprise. Blaise ran off to the source of the blast while I leaped in front of it, shield ready to stop it from doing any more damage.

I only managed to cut it off for a second before it stopped. I turned to Xavier. He was fine, his right hand covering the left side of his face with a swirling vortex of darkness. He stood up, shaking his arm.

“Did Zack find us?” I asked him.

He shook his head. “That was too weak to be Zack. Where’s Blaise?” Just then we heard gunshots and a yelp. We dashed into the forest to find two people, one on the ground and one standing over him.

The man on the ground’s arms lit up in flame, illuminating the clearing. It was Blaise. Above him stood a strong-looking man. The man was wearing a navy blue suit, white gloves, and a blank mask. He reached his hand out towards Blaise’s face, but Blaise kicked back, flipping to his feet just as a blast of blue light left a small crater where he had been.

The masked man looked up at the three of us, his emotions unreadable. “Who is this guy?” Blaise asked. “He took two bullets to the arm like they were marshmallows…” True enough, I could see two divots in his otherwise perfectly straight suit. “What do you want?”

“I’ve been tasked to take you out.” The man said it matter-of-factly, in a voice I had heard before.  _ The dream! _ That’s where I had heard it before! But I swore it was from somewhere before then too…

I was almost too lost in my thoughts to dodge the blue flames he shot towards us. Blaise tackled me out of the way as Xavier sidestepped it, drawing his black sword. The man rushed forwards, shooting punches at X. Xavier dodged them as well as he could, but they were flying almost too fast to see. The man jabbed hard, punching with the force of a hippo as blue energy crackled around his fists.

Blaise shot flaming bullets at him, but they seemed to barely affect the masked man. I rushed in behind my shield, confident that Blaise would manipulate his shots around me, and went in to bodyslam the man. Instead, he ducked under one of X’s slashes and kicked me back. I went flying into a tree.

Xavier took the opportunity to go on the offensive, however, slashing and pushing the man back. The man parried the slices with his fists, punching back Xavier’s blade. X stepped out of the man’s reach as a dark mist surrounded his blade before returning to the fight. The man stopped parrying attacks, instead dodging them with superhuman speed. Blaise shot a wave of fire at him, but it disappeared into the man’s body. The man roared behind his mask as Xavier’s sword aimed straight for his chest.

The blade was caught in a gloved, glowing blue hand as it was snapped in half. Xavier was stunned, but his surprise didn’t last long. A sucker punch to his gut sent X flying even further than me, out of sight.

Blaise was the last one standing. He’d fully given up on his revolvers and fire, instead throwing screws and bolts from his tool pouch all over the ground. The main rushed towards Blaise but stumbled on a chunk of metal. Blaise’s various materials began to rise off the ground and swirl around the man.

The masked man just stood still, quietly observing. Then, everything flew at him at once, sharp metal objects pelting him from every direction. It was a blur of steel-grey for several moments. Then, they were all shot away with a burst of blue energy.

Energy was now crackling around the mysterious man, leaking from his body. He glared at Blaise, intimidating even without being visible. The man put his hands together in front of him, then slowly pulled them apart, forming a growing orb of pure energy.

I struggled to get up. The back of my head was wet, probably bleeding from my impact against the tree I was now braced against. The orb was now as large as a beachball and still growing. By the time I was running towards them, it was the size of the man’s entire wingspan.

Many things happened at once. As the ball of crackling, blue energy reached its max, the man stepped back a few feet, before running and drop-kicking it. I heard screaming approaching from the distance, but it could have been mine as the orb flew towards Blaise. He’d have no way to get out of the way in time. Without thinking, I activated my HALO into its wing form and jumped in front of Blaise, my back to the rapidly approaching orb. The force blew us both through several trees, back to where our stuff was.

My body ached, and my back hurt like never before. It was on fire, burning like it’d gone one-on-one with a hydrogen bomb. I managed to roll off Blaise, who was unconscious under my body, but it just caused the pain in my back to worsen incredibly. I shot up to my feet but collapsed to all fours. I had no energy left. I fell flat, only managing to look up just as a body flew by into the tree my bag was against.

“WHO SENT YOU?” Xavier shouted from behind me. The right side of his clothing was tattered, torn to shreds. I couldn’t see anything between his waist and chin as it was covered in shadow, but his chest was exposed. A bruise from where he’d been hit laid plain to see, like paint on a white shirt. The jagged edge of his snapped sword was tightly grasped in his other hand, and blood trickled down his forehead.

“Ugh…” The man groaned. He lay limp against the tree, looking up towards us. His mask was cracked, revealing his dark skin and a single eye glowing yellow. He stood up, looked at us three, and seemed to come to a decision. “Someone who’s gonna be furious with me for my  _ weakness _ .” He spat the last word, blood seeping through one of the cracks in his mask.

“I better leave, live to destroy you another day…” He muttered. “You haven’t seen the last of me, and that’s a threat.” Xavier lunged towards him, but the man leaped away with a burst of energy that left a crater filled with my spare clothes before X even got close.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter really took a while, huh? I blame end-of-semester school work and my inability to write fight scenes. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed! Thanks again to my friends who beta-read these chapters! Maybe Chapter 9 won't take as long as this one did. Maybe.


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